What's Your Instinct: Should Parents Be Fined For Raising Bullies (As One Wisconsin City Has Decided)?

The Madison, Wisconsin suburb of Monona has instituted a new city-wide ordinance that has quickly become fodder for parenting blogs around the world. Monona parents of bona fide bullies are to be fined (after a one time warning) if their children intimidate, emotionally abuse, slander, threaten or intimidate another person" without "legitimate purpose."

"Sometimes you’ll knock on someone’s door and they won’t want to talk to you — their kids are perfect, they could never do anything wrong," Monona Police Chief Wally Ostreng told Madison's NBC 15. "This is for those times when we get the door slammed in our faces."

Parents of bullies are given one warning about their children's activities by the city. Subsequent infractions will then result in a citation for parents that includes a fine between $114 and $177.

Oddly enough, the ordinance doesn't impose an age limit on who can be defined as a "bully," though it does specify the law only applies to those over age 12.

What's your Instinct? Should parents be fined if their kids are bullies?